"I'll arrange the meeting with Martian Manhunter. Does anyone else have other candidates?"
With the precautions for meeting Martian Manhunter settled, Batman looked around the table.
He still had plenty of hero profiles in his folder, but the only two he genuinely wanted to push were those.
Handing the right to recommend over to the others, Batman leaned back into his seat. Meanwhile, Barry—who had already thoroughly read everything—pulled out one particular file and glanced at Hal beside him.
"Hal, this says Earth has another Green Lantern backup candidate… Guy Gardner…"
"No!"
The instant Barry said the name, Hal Jordan didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second—his rejection was immediate and absolute.
Technically, when Abin Sur died, the ring had nearly chosen both Hal and Guy Gardner at the same time. Hal only got it because he was closer.
But later, when the Guardians told Hal to recruit Guy Gardner as an official backup Lantern, Hal learned—very quickly—just how unstable that man was.
Hal had tried to lead by example, to mold Guy into a proper Green Lantern… and after a while, he'd just broken down in despair.
Guy Gardner didn't listen to a single word of advice.
Compared to Guy—impulsive, hotheaded, desperate to prove himself—even Hal Jordan started looking like a humble, steady, well-mannered adult.
Seeing Hal's reaction, Barry scratched his head, utterly baffled.
Someone chosen by a Green Lantern ring shouldn't be that bad, right?
"But—"
Before Barry could even try to add one more sentence, Hal cut him off with steel in his voice:
"No! God! Please! No!!!"
He'd worked his ass off to convince the Guardians to ship "that idiot Guy" off to Oa for proper Corps training.
Hal was not about to let him anywhere near Earth again.
"Okay. Then that's that. I don't have anyone else to recommend."
Faced with Hal's intensity, Barry could only back down.
As Barry sat back, Hal—and most of the others—turned their eyes to Ben.
Under the weight of everyone's attention, Ben honestly didn't know who to suggest. Most of the hero files Batman had "borrowed" from the D.E.O. weren't familiar names to him.
"I can list people who joined the Justice League in the original storyline," Ben said. "But I don't know what their current situation is like. How to approach them, how to verify them—that part depends on you."
After that disclaimer, Ben started rattling off names like he was reading a menu.
"Black Canary. Hawkgirl. Hawkman. Zatanna. Constantine. Plastic Man. The Atom. Firestorm. Booster Gold. Blue Beetle. Doctor Fate. Vixen. Red Tornado. Metamorpho. Captain Atom…"
Even in that long string of names, Ben wasn't actually familiar with all of them. A lot of them were, for him, just names he'd heard before.
The ones he really wanted to recommend, though, were the key assistants tied to two major heroes at the table.
"Nightwing. Batman's former Robin. He's got incredible acrobatics, he's a martial arts expert, a strategist and leader, with strong detective skills and spycraft."
"Former Robin? I have only one Robin."
Ben hadn't even finished before Batman's brow creased.
He only had one Robin at his side. Dick was around Ben's age right now—yes, he'd been fighting crime alongside Batman in Gotham since he was young, but he was nowhere near as polished as Ben was describing.
"Dick hasn't even grown up yet?"
Ben froze.
By the timeline order of the animated movie plots, the next film should've been heading into Damian's "main character" era already—yet Dick still hadn't become Nightwing.
Which meant Jason—"the second Robin"—hadn't even become Robin yet… much less been beaten to death by the Joker with a crowbar.
Maybe this was a timeline deviation.
Ben scratched his head, suddenly unsure whether Damian had even been born yet.
Shoving the Bat-Family mess out of his mind for the moment, Ben turned to Flash.
"Alright, then what about the next pick: Kid Flash, Wally West? He should've already touched the Speed Force, right?"
As a speedster, Wally West was also an excellent hero.
And for comic readers from before the New 52 reboot, the Flash they grew up with—the one who carried the mantle after Crisis—was often Wally, not Barry.
But this was the rebooted continuity. Ben didn't even know whether the Kid Flash beside Barry in this world would be the classic red-haired Wally… or the newer version.
"He only encountered the Speed Force recently," Barry said. "It's too early to bring him into the League. He's too young—he needs more experience."
Wally was Iris's nephew. After an accident, he replicated the conditions that had once given Barry the Speed Force in the first place.
Right now, Barry was still teaching him how to use it properly. Letting Wally join the League at this stage was simply premature.
"Speaking of age," Wonder Woman said, "I think we need to address a problem we've been deliberately avoiding."
After Batman and Flash both dismissed their own protégés as "not mature enough," Wonder Woman finally spoke up and pierced straight through the polite silence.
"Ben Tennyson and Shazam—both of their true ages are still children. We have to seriously consider whether they're mature enough for the battles ahead, and for the scrutiny of the public eye."
The moment she said it, Shazam felt his last thread of hope snap.
He'd been trying to dodge the whole age issue ever since joining, and now that it was out in the open, he let out a miserable groan:
"Oh my god, I knew this would happen. Do you really have to talk about it right in front of us?!"
"Precisely because we respect your thoughts, I'm bringing it up in this meeting," Wonder Woman said. "I want to hear what you truly think."
She stood, her gaze sweeping over both boys.
Whether it was Shazam or Ben, they had overwhelming power—but their fighting style was far too playful.
Ben was steadier than Shazam, sure, but to Wonder Woman, treating real battles as a chance to "practice abilities" was still childish.
"You need to check your heart," she said, voice calm and sharp. "Do you genuinely want to be a hero… or are you, as a traveler from another world, just playing a game where you pretend to be one?"
Ben fell silent.
Because she was right.
To him, being a "hero" had always felt like a game. Fixing the broken future—winning against the bad ending—was just the objective for clearing the route.
To clear it more efficiently, Ben had locked himself in the lab over and over, trying to crack the Omnitrix's higher permissions—chasing more power so he could "pass the level" when the final boss arrived.
Picking up from Wonder Woman's line of questioning, Batman—who had reviewed the base surveillance—leaned forward and hit Ben with a second, colder probe.
"You've lived in the base this long. Have you transformed into your other forms at all? Do you actually understand what those aliens can do? Or were you planning to wait until the final battle—then scramble and learn everything at the last second?"
…
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 30
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 30
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